A review by frombethanysbookshelf
Furious Thing by Jenny Downham
4.0
Genre: YA
Release Date: 4th February 2021
Lexi is a difficult girl. She'd rude, clumsy, angry ....
But girls aren't meant to be angry, are they? If she could just 'calm down' and act like a lady, maybe her mum would love her like she did before, maybe her stepdad would finally stop bullying her. Maybe she wouldn't catch the attention of creepy strange men. Maybe her crush who awkwardly is set to be married into the family soon might notice her one day.
So she tries. She tries to be the cool girl. She tries to "Be nicer, be sorry, calm down.". She tries to be the girl everyone expects her to be. But anger has a way of demanding to be felt and Lexi is set to explode.
This was a spellbinding commentary on a young girl discovering feminism and the rage that undeniably follows being a woman in the world. Enthralling and enchanting, this is the story of a girl who is never taken seriously, being bullied and abused for simply being a woman who dares to feel things too deeply and speak her mind.
The situations we go through with our new friend feel all too painfully familiar and so true to life, I was instantly in Lexi's corner and desperate to know where she's going next and it was far too easy to speed through every single chapter in one sitting.
One of the most beautiful parts of this story was the relationship between Lexi and her half-sister Iris. A beautiful, precocious six year old girl who is slowly learning that being an angry monster isn't always a terrible thing. Lexi so wants the world to be perfect for Iris, and the togetherness of living in an unfair world brings these two even closer than before.
And the end of this tale? It had me both blind with rage and full of laughter all at once, such a beautifully, heartbreakingly real conclusion to this chapter in Lexi's life.
Furious Thing is a must-read for every other angry woman out there.
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you to NetGalley and Jenny Downham for a reviewers copy in return for a review.